This invention relates to cabinets or storage facilities for keeping supply articles, and is more particularly directed to a system to modernize supply chain management and track inventory items. The invention is more specifically directed to a cabinet suitable for use in a hospital or health care facility, for providing controlled access to a stock of supply items such as dressings, tape, IV bags, infusion kits, gloves, masks, tissues, and personal items, and more specifically to a controlled access cabinet that facilitates keeping an audit trail of access to the various supply items stored in the cabinet.
At the present time, disposable items are routinely kept on mobile hospital carts on hospital floors. These carts are used for the type of disposable items listed above. The carts are stocked in a central supply, and wheeled up to the patient floors on a daily basis. In some facilities, the carts are kept in a locked room on the floor, with the nursing staff having to obtain the key to the room in order to access these supplies. In other facilities, the carts are kept out at the nursing station or in the hallway, providing open access for anyone to remove these items from the supply carts.
Tracking the inventory of these supply items is difficult and unreliable. The tracking of items removed from the cart, if carried out at all, has been performed using a manual system. In some facilities this involves removing stickers from the individual items, and then placing them on a patient-specific sheet, for later billing purposes. This system is highly prone to errors, as it fails to track some items altogether, leads to frequent billing errors, provides insufficient security, and does not provide the hospital or other facility with any real-time status information about the inventory levels of the supply items in the carts.
It would be desirable to employ a limited-access cabinet for disposable supply items at a convenient location on the hospital floor, which can be loaded by hospital supply staff and kept securely until needed; which will automatically keep track the items removed from the cabinet; and which can provide the hospital supply department with a real-time inventory level for these items. It is also desirable to limit access to the nursing staff and other authorized persons, and to keep an audit record of when and by whom access to the supplies was obtained.
It is also desirable that the cabinet make efficient use of floor space, and fit as much inventory into as small a footprint as possible. The supply cabinet should make it simple for authorized persons to obtain the supply items they need.